The invention relates to a photocopying machine comprising a repeat mechanism which, after the original has left the exposure station, optionally returns it into the entry position, comprising a feed mechanism which feeds the original and the copying material past the exposure station, a separating station which is arranged behind the exposure station and which separates the original from the copying paper and a return feeding arrangement which picks up the original and supplies it to the entry members on the feed table and simultaneously moves it for the purpose of alignment on to a lateral bearing edge.
Repeat mechanisms on photocopying machines have long been known, from U.S. Pat. No. 2,574,215 ( -- Swiss Pat. No. 257,430). Also known are various proposals for ensuring, with the return of the original, that the said original during the renewed entry into the exposure station is so aligned laterally that it is not shifted laterally in relation to the copying material (which generally is prepared or made ready in a specific lateral position by the photocopying machine itself) (as indicated in German Offenlegungsschrifts Nos. 2,220,397 and 2,348,426). It is a disadvantage with these known photocopying machines comprising repeat mechanisms, of which the return feeding arrangement simultaneously aligns the original to one side, is that each transverse movement of the original serving for the lateral alignment is only able to take place when the original has completely moved away from the exposure station. This is because it is only then that those means of the return feeding arrangement serving for the lateral alignment are in the position actually to move the original transversely, whereas it was previously held at its rearward end by the feed mechanism guiding the original past the exposure station. If the force exerted by the aligning means of the return feeding mechanism were to be made sufficiently large for the lateral movement to occur in spite of the holding force of the feeding mechanism, the result would be, at least in many cases, the creasing or even tearing of the original.